3 takes from Goodell at NFL Owners' Meetings

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell finished the owners’ meetings by talking about a variety of topics.

Respect a key focus: Goodell opened the NFL Owners’ Meetings talking about respect, and it was a topic that was discussed throughout the three days of meetings and one highlighted during his closing press conference.

The goal league-wide is to ensure an environment where respect comes first.

“This is a professional workplace for everybody,” said Goodell. “That’s players, coaches, trainers, equipment men, executives. All of us expect that and it is our job to make sure we deliver that.

“I think this is going to be a collective effort. You’ve heard some of the coaches. We’ve had several different sessions discussing this with executives, owners and coaches. We are going to talk with our players on April 8 and that’s the focus of the meeting. We’ll talk about what we can do to ensure a professional workplace. I mentioned to you the other day that I met with 40 players from nine different teams over the last three months to discuss this. They want a professional workplace and we owe it to them. We are going to work with them to try to create that.”

Locker room environment: In a related item, Goodell addressed the effort to make the environment in the locker room closer to what it is in the team’s front offices.

“Locker rooms are unique,” said Goodell. “There are unique things that we have to think about. We want them to be professional. We want them to be comfortable –everyone in that locker room – so they can focus on doing their job. That’s what we all owe them.

“We will be working with our players, our coaches, our executives and with outside experts. We will be going through a lot of training on the club level over the next several months and I’m confident that everyone understands the importance of it and embraces it.”

Cold weather Super Bowls: The owners’ meetings generated talk about Super Bowl XLVIII, as it always does about the most recent game. But there was no further discussion about an outdoor game in a cold weather city.

“We discussed the Super Bowl in the context of what we achieved, the successes that occurred and things that we can do better,” said Goodell. “We do that every year following the Super Bowl and try to achieve a better event for our fans and for our teams. The overall reaction was positive.

“People believe that the Super Bowl was a great opportunity to put us on the number-one stage and promote the Super Bowl. There was a positive reaction to it. The only future discussion we had was really the bidding process in May and we already have three cities that are in that process.”